Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Meanwhile…rawr!

It was only a year or so ago that my daughter was singing High School Musical as loud as she can, knowing every word and all of the harmonies. I used to endure it in the car just for her, knowing that I was doing something special for her.

Tonight, I put it on for old time’s sake and she completely wigged out. She cupped her ears and ran screaming. Apparently one week of middle school changes a girl.

It’s pretty scary raising our first 11 year old – going on 19. She is all of a sudden too cool for us parents. The transformation is real and it happens very quickly. Enjoy the time you have with your kids while you have them. They will not always want to hang out with you and may even be completely embarrassed by your mere presence in any public setting.

<Sigh>

Oh well, I still have thee more to try to brainwash before they get too cool for their ol’ Dad.

For the record, I actually think this soundtrack is pretty good. The songwriting is rather appropriate and better than I would have expected for something like this nowadays.

As far as Zac and Vannessa’s behavior off screen…ugh. But really, they have very little to do with the “music” part of this, so I can easily let them fade out of the picture when I enjoy the songs for what they are.

I wonder what next week’s drama will be. :p

Ever notice how TV commercials seem to be much louder than the normal programming? Well, it’s not your imagination. Not only is it very annoying to many, it is also not an accident. Those advertisers pay big bucks to get their 30 seconds of face time with you, and they don’t really care about the volume the programming, but want to make sure their ad is at maximum volume (“But this goes to eleven”).

I am thrilled to see that a member of congress is actually taking this seriously by introducing a bill to make the FCC fix this problem. I hope it passes, although I don’t want the enforcement to get so costly to TV stations that they end up having to make even more ads to make up for the lost money. That would be bad for us consumers.

Of course, we could also simply fast forward through the commercials. Tivo does indeed rule, especially when hacked and the 30-second skip is enabled. I get the feeling advertisers don’t really like that either.

It’s hilarious for fans and informative to everyone. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just follow the link and vote for Allison! She will play the most interesting to watch game, period. I don’t care if you watch Big Brother or not, just do this please. C’mon, you’re bored and you could help a good cause. Thanks!

CLICK HERE

Do not attempt to adjust your TV screen. Your national and local news anchors and reporters are all off doing outlandish crazy things to get your attention this month.

Yes, it is time for November sweeps gain. The Nielsen rating system uses certain months to analyze who watched what station and when, so they can give the stations the report, then the stations can show the report to advertisers and brag about how many people love to watch their station, then charge the advertisers more money.

Conversely, if ratings are low, advertising revenues go into the toilet, so it behooves each broadcasting company to make sure they have a good month during November (there are other months too, like May and February, but November leads into the Christmas season, which is the super-retail season, so it tends to matter that much more.

The result is what you see right now on your TV. Matt Lauer reporting live from Greenland/North Pole, with cohorts in the Antarctic and equator, all collaborating live with Meredith Vierra in New York (Today Show, btw) to explain to us “dumb masses” why we need to live without lights and gasoline and how the earth is melting. All of this is part of NBC’s initiative to make this week or month “green”, bringing global warming awareness to all who watch TV.

I also noted that NBC is using their real name more now, “NBC-Universal”, as in , Universal Pictures the studio. Interesting they don’t bring focus on the parent company name, General Electric (GE).

I guess it would sound a bit bit odd taking energy saving tips from a company with a name that contains the word “Electric”, huh? So they go with Universal and call this a Universal initiative. Whatever. Have fun with that.

All this means is that I will have a green peacock symbol at the lower left while watching Bionic Woman and Heroes, rather than the rainbow-colored one. By the way, watch for all kinds of crazy plot twists and turns in all of your favorite shows this month. These stunts are also meant to attract more viewers to pad the numbers.

Now, as a consumer, I would prefer the TV stations step it up ALL the time, not just during Nielsen-critical months. It’s almost as if I wish I had a large-scale time-shifting TV, like a Tivo that shifted months, not just days. That way, we can go about our busy lives in November (tell me your month isn’t simply jam-packed??) then watch all of the exciting TV shows whenever we get around to it, say January or so.

True, you can already do this if you try hard enough and have a Tivo with endless amounts of hard drive storage, but c’mon…I want to know what happens to Katee Sackhoff’s bionic character as soon as possible! (Side note: Sackhoff is WAY hotter and more interesting than the actual Bionic Woman (WhatsHerName) …which is sad. Worse even, is that her younger sister, played by Lucy Hale is way cuter than her, too. But I digress…)

Another stunt to watch for is Tuesday when Dr. House ends up having to go help the CIA diagnose someone who is dying/dead from a possible bio-terrorist attack.

OK, maybe that sounds sort of cool, but seriously, that’s not your typical House episode, now is it? Just watch and you’ll see how crazy all of the writers get (urged by the networks, of course) on all of your favorite shows (assuming they all still have jobs this week…Oh, and by the way, the writers know that this is sweeps month and know that it would be a harder blow to the networks to go on strike during this critical ratings review month).

Oh, and you won’t be seeing a single rerun for the entire month, IF the strike ends like….now.

After deciding to keep the whole alarm fiasco IN the show, they moved along to the next guest, the stunning Paget Brewster. OK, so it seemed. But the actual interview was interrupted twice by this same alarm/problem. Conan was about to blow a gasket but maintained enough composure to make it through the show. Paget was very charming and a good sport through it all, but they had to cut the meat of her interview short due to the lost time from the alarms.

I didn’t realize that taped shows were under such strict time guidelines, but apparently they are. So what we have as a result is late night talk show history. I believe Conan comes on another cable channel during the day (previous day’s show) so look it up if you want to see it. Of course, someone will put it on youtube soon, and then it will probably get taken down by NBC or something. Anyway, I had to mention it. (Update: you should be able to see the show here at NBC.com as well)

And was it just me, or did Lara Logan on Jay Leno just completely mesmerize everyone with her smarts and beauty? You should look that one up too if you can. It was a very sober interview about the things she has seen in war and her life as an international journalist (currently with CBS). James Spader was amazing on the show as well.

OK, so it’s a few days late, but I just watched this week’s episode of Prison Break, and I am truly stunned. Most of you probably already know about what happened. Scofield’s love interest, Sara Tancredi was killed. Apparently there were issues with the actor’s (Sarah Wayne Callies) contract, she was having a baby, they were going to kill her off but have her come shoot a few episodes, she didn’t like that idea, or something. The issue is well laid out over at MeeVee.

I agree with this article in the way this story arc was handled:
It’s going to alienate a lot of fans. The show gets some guys who tune in for the action, but female viewers in many cases stick around for Wentworth Miller as Michael. Killing off the love of his TV life seems to make as much sense as Jim strangling Pam in a quiet corner at Dunder Mifflin. Especially after Michael and Dr. Sarah spent most of last season risking life and limb for the chance to be together.

What a sad character arc. Recovering drug addict Dr. Sarah tries to make amends with a job helping inmates at the prison run by her dad. Ends up falling in love with Michael and helping him escape. Exposed, she becomes a national pariah. Relapses. Her dad ends up dead – a murder made to look like suicide, if I remember correctly. Dr. Sarah is tortured by remorse and Agent Kellerman. She finally reunites with Michael in the season-ender only to have him take the fall so she can go free. After which she falls into the hands of kidnappers. Who decapitate her to send a message to the boyfriend. Which doesn’t even get delivered because Linc can’t bear to tell Michael what’s happened.

Full Post

I am one of the fans that has been alienated. Out of loyalty, however, I will be watching at least to see what Michael’s reaction to the news ends up being, although that doesn’t make the way this was handled. I mean, if you HAD to kill Sara off, OK, but at least make it dramatic and moving with at least an emotional payoff of some sort.

I am convinced that unless they end up hiring another great looking, voluptuous, vulnerable-looking female actor and somehow get us to want her and Scofield to get together, this show is doomed. Since the odds of that happening in only 17 or so episodes is…actually, wait a sec…that’s a lot of episodes, especially at the pace the whole story this season has been changing, so I guess anything could happen. Hmmm. Maybe the show will live. I’m still very pissed off, though. Bastards.

On a side note, did you know that the actress Sarah Wayne Callies grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii like me? And her parents were professors at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, just like my dad? But she went to Punahou High whereas I went to McKinley High. Interesting tidbit of info there.

The show is actually very funny, albeit slapstick at times. The newsroom setting is also near and dear to my heart, coming from a TV news background myself. The jokes resound that much more with me.

But why, oh why must we still include the hokey, cheesy, unnecessary laugh tracks in these shows? Do you hear any laughing on The Office? My Name is Earl? No! Do you miss it? Did you even know it wasn’t there before you just read about it here?

What is the origin of the laugh track anyway? I guess I can understand it’s usefulness for decades past, but today’s audiences are much more savvy to what goes into making a show and also able to follow plot lines and jokes better than previous audiences. And it really irks me when the canned laughter is really loud during non-funny moments. I think I’ll decide what’s funny or not, thank you very much.

Which shows do you think should have their laugh tracks removed?

My Dad used to ALWAYS say this during football season. Of course, he was right, and for most of football-loving America tonight, they got to see why.

Dallas 25, Buffalo 24. The “Miracle in Buffalo”: a final 2 seconds field goal from an impossible 53 yards, successfully kicked not once, but twice, (thanks to an “ice-out” last second time-out by the Bill’s coach) by rookie kicker Nick Folk!

I have to admit, the Bills fans were ready, loud and energetictonight, causing the Cowboys all kinds of trouble. But as Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo stated after the game, his team is “resilient” and was able to dig him out of the hole he dug with 5 interceptions.

I almost had a freaking heart attack tonight, watching the Cowboys blunder left and right! SO many close calls! The Bills had the game all but wrapped up and they managed to still blow it. But hey, America is God’s country, right? And the Cowboys are America’s team, so…you do the math.

The Cowboys have some serious work to do to get ready for the Patriots next week, but for the next 6 days, The Cowboys are 5-0, undefeated thus far. The Patriots are 5-0 as well, so someone is going home crying next week.

I have always and always will love the Cowboys. I bleed blue. Never EVER give up on the Cowboys!

Josh

cowboys, field goal, football season, miracle, Nick Folk, rookie kicker, tony romo, undefeated]]> http://joshhaley.com/2007/10/09/never-give-up-on-the-cowboys/feed/ 0 Nick Folk Cowboys Tickets http://joshhaley.com/2007/08/28/miss-south-carolina-defends-her-blonde-moment/ http://joshhaley.com/2007/08/28/miss-south-carolina-defends-her-blonde-moment/#comments Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:15:14 +0000 Josh Haley blondedouchebagmatt lauerMiss South Carolinapageanttoday show http://joshhaley.com/2007/08/28/miss-south-carolina-defends-her-blonde-moment/ Continue reading →]]> On the Today Show. Crazy thing is that she looks way hotter on the Today show as a “normal” person than she did in the pageant, which is probably why I don’t care for pageants. Anyway, here’s the video, even though I think Matt Lauer is a complete douchebag.

Click here to view the embedded video.